In the World of the High Tech Redneck, the Graybeard is the old guy who earned his gray by making all the mistakes, and tries to keep the young 'uns from repeating them. Silicon Graybeard is my term for an old hardware engineer; a circuit designer. The focus of this blog is on doing things, from radio to home machine shops and making all kinds of things, along with comments from a retired radio engineer running from tech or science news to economics; from firearms to the world at large.

Friday, April 27, 2012

NC Blogger Facing Jail Time

In one of the most ridiculous stories in weeks, a blogger from North Carolina was threatened with up to 120 days in jail for telling people about how changing his diet helped him control his diabetes and loose weight. According to Reason Magazine (h/t to The Blaze):

[When] Steve Cooksey...was hospitalized with diabetes in
February 2009, he decided to avoid the fate of his grandmother, who
eventually died of the disease. He embraced the low-carb,
high-protein Paleo diet, also known as the “caveman” or
“hunter-gatherer” diet. The diet, he said, made him drug- and
insulin-free within 30 days. By May of that year, he had lost 45
pounds and decided to start a blog about his success.

But this past January the state diatetics and nutrition board
decided Cooksey’s blog — Diabetes-Warrior.net — violated state law.
The nutritional advice Cooksey provides on the site amounts to
“practicing nutrition,” the board’s director says, and in North
Carolina that’s something you need a license to do.

It's probably a safe assumption that most people don't pay much attention to diabetes issues unless they have it. The only reason I pay attention is because I'm the only one in my family blood line that doesn't have type II diabetes - and I'm closer than I'd like to be. If you don't follow it closely, you won't know there is a massive schism between people who proactively attack their diabetes in an attempt to escape the complications (virtually all amputations in the US are due to diabetes) and the dietary recommendations of the American Diabetes Association. The ADA recommends a diet high in carbohydrate in the form of "healthy whole grains", but the folks who attack the problem have (seems to me) all learned the best treatment is a low (or even zero) carbohydrate diet - the opposite of the ADA's approach. While the ADA recently published a magazine article saying, in essence, "shut up, take your medicine and do what we say", the people following the alternate theory end up getting off medications and even off insulin, like Cooksey. Seems to me that has to be safer.

So Cooksey's crime was to contradict the ADA advice - even though he has a disclaimer on every page of his blog saying:

I am not a doctor, dietitian nor nutritionist… in fact I have no medical training of any kind.
If I can figure this out so should they… if it wasn’t for their …

Charla Burill, the board’s director, told Carolina Journal she
could not discuss the details of Cooksey’s case because his website
is still under investigation, but agreed to talk about the law in
the hypothetical....

Burill said [Cooksey's] disclaimer may not protect a nutrition
blogger from the law.

“If I’ve given you reason to not worry that I don’t have a
license because I have all these other reasons I’m an expert, you
could still harm the public,” she said. “At least you’re not trying
to mislead the public, but you’re trying to get the public to trust
you.”....

Burill said if Cooksey refuses to come into compliance with the
law, the board could file for an injunction.

If you only knew the power of the Dark Side! Oops, sorry. Did I say that out loud?

Since Mr. Cooksey isn't made of money and is just an average blogger (like most of us), he has done just enough to comply with the North Carolina officials. Between you and me, I don't think there's much of a line between an opinionated blogger (I repeat myself) and a friend telling you they lost weight, feel great, and here's how they did it. Is the next step to monitor conversations and make people not talk unless it's approved by the board? What about the dozens of magazines on the newstand every month doing the same thing? What about Michelle Obama's nagging about "eating right"? What's the difference?

I had a vet on our ward at the VA who used diet and exercise alone to successfully get off of his diabetic meds. You would think these fools would encourage providing that kind of information instead of punishing for it. When Kerodin and others speak of "lists", this is the kind of individual I believe they are writing about. I'm curious how she stumbled upon his blog, since you don't need to be on the Internet to sit in your office at taxpayer expense and play solitaire.

I have read numerous articles (I was an R.N.) claiming that consuming cinnamon could help _prevent_ the onset of diabetes. (Not cure it or even improve it once you became an active diabetic.) It exists in my family as well, although I haven't gone there - yet, at least. I use cinnamon several times a day (mostly in my coffee) just in case it actually does help.

I believe the health ministers met him at some sort face to face, and he was giving out cards recommending his blog. From there it was easy to look up his blog and go all police state on him.

I've been doing the extra cinnamon as a result of reading that, too. Apparently you need grams per day, which is hard to get if you use it as a spice, but not hard if you take it as a supplement.

I've always been skeptical of herbal supplements that there are no standardized doses for. Without a lot of hard experimental data, how much do you take? Plus, how do you know it's not someone's lawn trimmings? ;-)

You are right about guessing the quantity needed, but as much coffee as I drink (both brewed and instant), I think I'm getting a decent dose. I use both the Vietnamese and the Indonesian. I haven't tried the "cinnamon challenge" yet, and I don't think I ever will:

I get mine from Penzey's, a great spice purveyor selling products of excellent quality (better than McCormicks, Spice Islands, etc. in my opinion) and lower prices than the spices in the supermarkets. No clippings included :-)

Almost every action or *inaction* is violating some law, regulation, rule or ordinance. This way, the state can make money both by fines and justifying swarms of regulatory and enforcement officers as collection agents. If all else fails, they put you in jail and justify the construction of new privately owned leased prisons where you work for them for $4/day and they can justify the hiring of yet more monkeys to guard and administer the "correctional facilities".

I'm a journalist and have written extensively about the drastic changes in the American diet that came about approx. 100 years ago, as industrialized agriculture trampled through the US. It was only then that we began eating a diet largely made up of grains instead of healthy fruits and vegetables. According to books I have from the 1800s, doctors knew back in the 1800s that the way to curb diabetes was to limit grains. It seems that today only the disinformation agents have the "licenses."

LIMIT GRAINS? grains have been eaten since eden. the cure for diabetes 2 is simple not complicated. LOSE HE FAT STUPID! as the body consumes more CALORIES OF ALL KINDS fat and cabo than it can burn, the body STORES THE EXCESS CALORIES as fat. As people get fatter they get slower, as they get slower they dont burn ANY CALORIES thus the cycle of eat and store fat begins, and soon the most insulin the body can peoduce cannt cope with the store energy, thus diabete 2 is caused. The cure is simple, MOVE FATTY MOVE! MOVE 5 MILES EVEYDAY WALKING OR UNNING! IN 1 YEAR YOU WILL BE CURED!

Grains have NEVER been the primary source of food in the US until 100 years ago. They should be limited. When Dr. Luise Light created the original (real) "USDA Food Pyramid" she advised that grains be limited. She told me that the cereal industry had her Pyramid altered to move grains back into the "most important" place, i.e., the "foundation" for the diet. Luise told me that her team protested knowing this would be a recipe for disaster, including diabetes. She recommended no more than 2 servings of grains a day for sedentary women, while the cereal industry had the Pyramid changed to say "6 to 11" servings a day.

Unknown - there are quite literally millions of people who have done the experiments on themselves that prove this "conventional wisdom" wrong.

It's common for doctors to tell patients to "eat less and move more" and then just assume the the patients are lying or being lazy when those patients come back after doing the lifestyle changes and not getting better.

Now that it has been going on for over 40 years, enough doctors are going through the cycle (of changing and it not making a difference) that they're leading the experiments against that viewpoint. For example, Dr. Peter Attia, at The War on Insulin, and more.

There is some truth to what you say but remember too, that in the 1800's doctors who even acknowledged the existence of microorganisms were certain that germs were the result, rather than the cause of disease, that "fevers" were cause by "bad air" and that the human sperm cell contained a "homunculus". Everything of past ages in some moldy book does not neccesarily constitute a valuable lost art.

If you're talking to me, the oldest book I've read on this subject was copyright 2007, IIRC. The latest is copyright 2011 - neither is exactly an old "moldy book". The science is quite recent, extremely detailed biochemistry. By that token, the lowfat mantra, which comes from aides to Senator George McGovern just after his failed presidential bid, is the old moldy stuff.

But the test of good science is that the evidence gets stronger for it over time, not weaker. Hopefully, the inquiries will be honest enough that we will learn the full story.

This does not surprise me one bit. North Carolina is probably the most corrupt state in the Union. It is certainly the most over taxed state in the Union.I tell you this having experienced it first hand.The "great" state of NC colluded with our loccal FBI, Special Agent Jim Page of the Raleigh FBI and Agent Eric Davis of the Charlotte FBI to cover up an Anthrax letter that was mailed to a North Carolinian, me, in October of 2001. And, not only help the Anthrax killer, Steven Hatfill, get away with it but get paid 6 million dollars for the 5 people he did kill and the one he attempted to kill, me.

How do I know it was Steven Hatfill? Easy! A month and half after receiving the poisoned letter I caught Steven Hatfill snooping around my house. Arrogant enough to wear his army jacket which had his last name printed on it. I told Agent Eric Davis his name 7 months before his name was released publicly.

Of course the ADA prefers people to follow their direction, there's huge profits in it. If one chooses to watch television, or read magazines or newspapers, there are numerous advertisements for the multitude of wonderful FDA "approved" drugs that will solve life's every problem; Statins, for instance, have a list of side effects worse than any form of high cholesterol (which through diet and exercise can be avoided in many cases) But that would take money out of the pockets of the mega pharmaceutical companies, who, by the way, are all supported by our many elected criminals on capital hill, many of whom are major stockholders in these companies. And guess what? They've passed legislation to prevent you from suing these big pharma companies if (when) their drugs debilitate you. Just "ask your doctor", you can get anything you want. (Or see on TV) But don't hand out alternative medical advise on the web, you might be arrested! It's ok for government agencies to push FDA approved drugs on society that are killing people. Think about it. It's all about the money. Wake up people. This is big brother stuff. Don't even get me started on Monsanto and genetically modifying our food suppply......

Grains should NEVER be the primary source of food. Fruits, vegetables and herbs should be the primary source only. Meat and Grains should only be a tiny fraction of someones diet, and if possible not be included at all! This would not just cure diabetes, but also get rid of OBCD and other diseases through wrong nutrition intake. The title "nutritionist" is not subject to professional regulation therefore he should not have any problems winning the case anyway. A nutritionist in my opinion should have knowledge on all nutrients and their effects on the human body as well have knowledge on food preparation. Microwaving is NOT a proper food preparation and processed food is very unlikely to contribute to your health. Make your own drinks, sweets, ice cream etc. and refrain from too much corporate bs.

How dare anybody contradict the self appointed, totally corrupted dietetic association, that is funded by producers of foods, of foodstuffs, of confectionaries, of beverages; by purveyors of fast foods, a large biotech company, and indirectly by big pharma.

Dont we all know that that the purpose of the this assn. is to keep us weak, sickly and obese, to grow big pharmas obscene profits and those of big foods.

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Retired radio engineer, follower of Christ, RF designer, mentor. Radio ham, home shop machinist, lapidary, silversmith, roadie cyclist, learning to be a rifleman, and home defender, - a guy with too many interests to keep track of.

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